Over 500 0nline participants followed the first digital BMC congress, which has been the first major meeting of the year for the healthcare industry in a long time, where people meet, exchange ideas, network and get to know each other. This time everything is different due to Corona, what remains the same is the quality of the lectures and sessions. After the welcome from Prof. Dr. Volker Amelung, chairman of the BMC, gave the opening speech in the first part of the congress, which was simply titled “digital”, and was given by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn. This was followed by a keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Ellen Nolte (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Klaus Bürg (Amazon Web Services) and Katharina Jünger (Teleclinic). It was moderated by the outgoing BMC managing director Dr. Patricia Ex.

>> The 2021 online congress organized by the Federal Association of Managed Care eV (BMC) also experienced on the first day of the congress what so many experienced before: massive technology problems. After the almost pro-
The start-up session should be able to be divided into seven sub-sessions, ranging from topics such as “Treating people with diabetes in nursing homes – on site and remotely”, sponsored by Abbott, to “Innovative reimbursement models for novel therapies”, supported by Pfizer, were enough. However, anyone who was interested in one of the seven video sessions received the following message for a good half hour: “There are currently problems with the video meetings. If you cannot make it to a meeting, we ask for your patience. The technology team is already working on a solution.” Actually, the entire first video session was unfollowable, even if the speakers were able to give presentations and chat with each other. That's why it was announced that the sessions (realized via Zoom) would be recorded and available afterwards.
The congress, technically handled by the Berlin agency WOK, provided a not unimportant side activity. Anyone who clicked on the “Participants” or “Speakers” folder could contact all other online congress participants via chat - so the BMC congress also fulfilled one of its main functions online: to be a, if not the, meeting place for the healthcare industry. <<